Still no arrest in string of suspicious fires

Arson investigation

Posted: Thursday, June 13, 2002

By Stephen Gurrsgurr@onlineathens.com

Nearly a month after eight Hart County vacation homes valued at more than $1 million were torched in an apparent arson, investigators have yet to make an arrest, despite the offer of a substantial reward for information.

The state Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner's Office is offering rewards totaling $80,000 for information about the fires, set in the pre-dawn hours of May 17 at the Reed Creek area on Lake Hartwell. Four of the homes were destroyed. The lakefront homes were valued between $179,000 and $270,000 each.

Hart County Sheriff Mike Cleveland said most of the homes were unoccupied at the time of the fire. They were built on speculation by several groups of investors from Georgia and out of state over the past few years, and three had been rented out while on the market, Cleveland said.

''They had not been sold, but a lot of time when people build spec houses and the market doesn't produce, they'll try to recoup some of their investment in rentals,'' he said.

Asked if the owners of the homes had been questioned about the arsons, Cleveland said, ''Everybody who ever had anything to do with any of those houses has been interviewed, and some have been polygraphed.''

Cleveland would not comment on whether the owners stood to reap large insurance payouts if the homes burned.

''We can't talk about that right now,'' he said.

The Georgia of Bureau of Investigation and insurance commissioner's arson investigators are probing the fires. Cleveland said they determined how and where the fires were started but declined to offer details, citing the ongoing investigation.